Starbucks IS Coming to Yosemite National Park

Yet another major corporation will be entering YNP this summer with a location in the Yosemite Lodge.

This continues a growing trend where corporations are gaining undue influence in some of our most sacred lands. In Yosemite, recent years have seen corporations barrel roll into YNP and the National Park Service. The Yosemite Valley Visitor Center now showcases televisions blaring recent corporate sponsorships, for companies such as REI, Subaru and even Budweiser. A small market just outside of the park but still on federal land that was run by a local family lost its contract to a corporation from Florida in 2015 (uniondemocrat.com/localnews…). And there is also a very public dispute going on in court about who owns the names to historic buildings, camp grounds, and hotels (nytimes.com/2016/03/02/us/b…) some of which were built by tax payer money in the early 1900’s. This is all amidst chronic and largely unaddressed skyrocketing visitation, which has been met with the dozing of small meadows and trees in Yosemite Valley to pave the way for more parking lots.

SBUX has been very good to me and my plans not to work forever. I’m not pointing any fingers or looking down on Starbucks. You anarchists or hypocrites out there may find below the ammo for your crusade:

I really do like Starbucks's coffee. I will see you guys this spring with tall lattes. All the problems in the world and Yosemite and they're pissed about corporate coffee in Yosemite. Pumpkin spiced lattes are really going to ruin the wilderness experience.

All I know, is if you get that coffee in the market, near the Climbing School store and the pizza shop, it's the worst brown water ever. Makes Starbucks taste like Intelligensia. I'm not a big fan of SBUX but sheesh the current coffee offering in the park pathetic.

I thought the coffee corner in the cafeteria was run by Peets. Or maybe it just uses their beans. Corporations are already in the door. I think there are more important battles to fight than who runs the concessions -- just because the current corp overlord in the park isn't branded out the whazoo doesn't mean it's somehow on a moral high ground.